Curse

Hanok Odbrook · Jul 04, 2005, 03:27 PM // 15:27

Having perused the forums for the last couple of weeks, and writing a list of some of my own ideas, I'm posting a compilation of some of the top updates that we need for Guild Wars here. Everyone, feel free to post your thoughts and additions.

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Of top importance, and shared by many on this forum, is the need to correct the failing ecomonics of the game. As I see it now, the cost of many items is more of an ecouragement to farming than a discouragement. To put it simply, farming will not go away, (especially since major publishers such as Sony are looking to legitimize it on their own sites), so limiting loot drops from monsters only forments a greater hording mentality through the masses. My ideas for fixing this are as follows:

1) Eliminate monetary trades between players unless they are members of the same guild. This will force people to trade equal value items instead of only circulating gold from one player to the next. It is unlikely that Guild Members will scam or overprice one another, so keeping the option within guild trades should pose no problem.

2) Add more gold sinks to the game. While the cost of many popular items at traders (such as black dye or runes) acts like a gold sink, that same cost only increases the farming mentality of the population. Gold sinks need to take money out of the system without getting something immediately in return. I like the idea posted in another thread of having players pay to hire henchmen, with increasing costs allowing the player to get more loot drops in return.

3) More ideas for gold sinks can be mercenaries that require payment for you to enter a certain area or town in the game. Perhaps, NPC's within towns that will give hints and tips for quests and locations for a nominal fee will come in handy as well.

4) The cost of items (especially dye) in Pre-Searing must be brought in-line with the costs in Post-Searing. This should include either adding more specialized traders in Pre-Sear (such as a dye trader) or increasing dye and other item drops for players who head out into the Northlands. Right now, Pre-Searing noobs are a scammer's gold mine. In order to do this, all NPC's should offer game items at a fixed cost, based on the item's power and rarity, but still stay within reason. Paying 4+ Platinum for black dye is simply rediculous. Every item currently available in the game should be able to be purchased from an NPC somewhere in the game world. Naturally, one shouldn't be able to buy all these items in Ascalon City, but should be required to progress through the missions in order to have access to these items without hoping for a nice drop. This is one sure way of cutting back on the farming and the overpricing that we have now.
4a) As one progresses through the missions and areas of the world, we should see more purple and gold loot drops the closer to the end game we get and less of the white and blue drops. Again, by having better drops the further along you go will encourage people to do quests and missions instead of farm to get items. coupled with being able to purchase higher value items from NPC's in latter parts of the game (since player's will also be accumulating gold throughout their progress, those high prices will seem more affordable and still be able to act as gold sinks), ought to do nicely in further cutting back farming and trade channel shouting.

5) Guild creation should either be eliminated from Pre-Searing, or the cost to create a guild and the cape should be switched. It should cost more to form a guild than it should to create the cape once you have your guild. There's really no use for guilds in Pre-Searing, since there are no arenas to fight in for Guild use. By moving this option to Post-Searing, more players might be encouraged to join an established guild in Pre-Searing, or wait until they enter the Academy and pay the Platinum to form their own guild, which will also act as an immediate gold sink in itself.

6) Going along with bringing the economics in-line between both parts of the game, a character level recommendation should be added by Sir Tydus so noobs will know what they are in for before prematurely heading off to the academy. We all have seen the myriad of complaints in-game as well as in forums of players who jumped the gun and are just slaughtered when they get to Post. Plus it will aid in party formation, as who of us GW veterans really want to add a level 2 or 3 noob to our party - we all know that just leads to more trouble than it's worth. By adding a recommendation that someone be level 7 or higher prior to entering the academy, we can at least have the hope that the noob has experienced the learning curve of the game. However, it should still be an option to go whenever we have added the 2nd Profession - the ability for us veterans to bring in a new character for whatever reason at level two is still nice.
6a) We need to have the ability to leave our party after completing the Academy mission and prior to being dropped into the Post-Searing world. I, for one, enjoy watching the cinematic every time I finish the mission, but there are also times where I just need to get to a project as fast as possible, so skipping the cinematic should automatically kick you from the party and drop you solo in Post-Searing. There is more than enough ability to reform your party once you get to town. You should also be given the option to leave your party prior to the start of the cinematic so that anyone who does want to watch it, then do their own thing after being dropped in Post can do so. As it is now, I need to log out during the Academy mission (thereby screwing over my current party), then logging back in so I can be partied with the henchmen and proceed at my own pace. Many times before doing this, I missed out on the 500 XP given by Osiric in Post because one of the players I was partied with was in such a hurry to get to town that I didn't even have time to talk to Osiric to pick up the quest.

7) The proposed changes to the Guild Halls that are underway will make them more worth the cost of the sigil, but let's reiterate: In-Guild PvP battles are a big request of current GW players, as is a storage option for easier trade among Guild members. I don't see the need for a gold vault in the Halls as this can lead to abuse, plus if monetary trades between Guild members is left in place, the vault becomes redundant. In regards to the storage, an option to earmark items for general use and for personalized use should be included with the addition. If I want to lend a member my 10-15 damage War Hammer for a limited amount of time, they should not be able to personalize the weapon (thereby eliminating my ability to use it), and it should automatically return to either the vault where I can pick it up again or directly to my own storage/inventory if space allows. However, should I simply want to give it to the member, I should be able to earmark the weapon specifically for that character, who then can personalize it if they so desire, or hand it off in the aforementioned manner to another guild member when they are finished with it.

8) Much mention has been made of the desire for one on one PvP battles. I'm not sure that it would be ecomonical to add 1x1 battles to current arenas (but making them an option for the in-Guild battles should be), but adding such a feature to a new Gladatorial Arena might be a nice feature. In addition to that, having this arena act in much the same way as historical gladitorial battles took place would certainly be an exciting element to experience. The Gladatorial Arena should include: 1 vs. 1 or more Player Characters; 1 vs. 1 or more NPC's; 1 vs. animal NPC's; and also include team variations of these battles and perhaps include themed battles as well, like the kind that was featured in the movie Gladiator.

9) Better Pet and Henchman AI is also a big request. Two of the problems I see with Pets and Henchmen is that they don't attack a monster until I target it, and every time I switch targets, the NPC also switches to the new target. Adding AI options such as setting the level of aggressiveness of our Pets and Henchmen, and commands such as "wait here" or "attack this foe" will aid those of us who don't desire or have the time to form an all Player party for quests and missions.

10) We need to have "Save Points" along mission routes, especially the longer ones, in case of technical difficulty that drops us from the game. While I enjoy the ability to play GW on my dial-up, if I loose the connection in the middle of a mission, it's very frustrating to have to start all over again. For example, I had to re-play the Ruins of Surmia mission four times before I was able to complete it without the game crashing, and I got very tired having having to slog my way through the early part of the game - before reaching the Erol cinematic - and there's no other way to get to Erol without having to fight the devourers time and again, which just got to be an aggrevating waste of time. By having various points along the mission route to save your progress, it will not only aid in saving time and aggrevation, it will also aid parties who loose member due to a crash. They can wait at the Save Point for that member to return to the party. These points can also act as gold sinks as a nominal fee can be charged at these points to save the mission's progress.

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These final three suggestions are more of pet peeves of mine, but the first one I have seen suggested in other threads:

11) Update the Collectors in Pre-Searing so that the Necromancer's and Elementalist's tunics, and the Mesmer's gloves are available. I am a completionist and it was quite the PITA to spend time searching for these items only to learn that they are not available. This isn't a priority update, but one that would be nice to have in the near future.

12) This option is slightly more important than #11, as I think we need another map zoom level in Post-Searing. The Vicinity and All World zooms aren't enough for my likes. There should be one in-between these two that will allow you to see more of the general area you are exploring without having to contantly scroll the map around. i.e. completing the Surmia mission takes you completely off the view to Nolani academy. The intermediate zoom should at least show most of the Ascalon area, similar to what the map shows in Pre-Searing.

13) Dye mixing needs to be fixed to act in a more logical way. I would like to see the base color of the armor ignored so that I can color any piece of armor or weapon purple and it will remain purple. Mixing should result in two vials of the new color as physics would dictate. The combinations that can be formed should be cut back to easier chart what colors can be created (which should then be included in the on-line manual), and the new colors should then be sellable to the Dye trader which would then be in her inventory for other players to purchase. All the basic colors should be of a fixed price as mentioned above, but I don't have a problem with the mixed versions fluctuating based on the amount of inventory held by the trader.
13a) As examples of mixing: blue+yellow=green; blue+yellow+silver=light green; green+black=forest (dark) green; all base colors (except silver) mixed should result in black; etc. There should be only one shade of each color in each direction (light and dark), and some combos that wouldn't necessarily make a good or major color difference should not be permitted, such as green+orange+red, just to cut down on the potential variations we could have. Having a basic mixing pallet to choose from enable enough variation to keep most everyone happy.
13b) Coupling 13a with the ability to completely dye different parts of armor or weapons different colors will add to the variation and personalization. i.e. I should be able to dye my sword blade one color and the hilt another color; I should be able to dye the chainmail portion of Warrior Ringmail Leggings and the leather portion two different colors. The parts of armor should also permit broader changes instead of just the lines of a basic Elementalist's tunic changing. I should have the option to either dye just the lines, just the rest of the tunic, or both any color I desire. This is where having two vials of mixed color come in handy as If I want to dye my Ringmail Leggings all one color, I have at least two vials with which to do so.

Well, that's it for now. Thank you to the devs who will read this and take it into consideration, and thanks to all the forum members who will slog through this lengthy diatriabe!

Hanok Odbrook
Real Millennium Group Guild
http://www.realmillenniumgroup.com/guild.html
Truth * Knowledge * Peace

This idea added on July 17, 2005:

14) After some careful consideration, I think a further increase in individual character storage is really necessary. I am a horder - I like having lots of weapons and items that my characters can use, but just from the nature of the game, having a lot of stuff is also necessary. Just between the crafting materials and raw materials needed to create weapons and armor take up much of the available storage for an individual character. Couple that with the need to bring a varied selection of weapons and armor to maximize your damage and protection against different mobs and areas of the game, the identification and salvage packs, and various quest items (including the ones we have no use for at this time but may need in the future - *tapestry shred*), and you'll find your storage space used up fairly quickly.
Having a large storage option added to guild halls will be a start, but there needs to be further storage options for individual characters as well.

arnansnow · Jul 04, 2005, 03:28 PM // 15:28

Too much text, can't focus.

Sir Skullcrasher · Jul 04, 2005, 04:55 PM // 16:55

umm, i got to disagree that taking away the trade system would a be crappy idea. Without the trade system, people are forces upon themself to get weapons and armors without anyone's help. Without the trade system, i wouldn't have got three great weapons from my guildmate who give it to me for free, just to help me out. I know by taking away the trade system, it would remove all the clutter of WTS/WTB message at towns but hey just look away or ignore the message like i do.

I do agree, we need a better henchmen system, the current henchmen that they got is low on AI and high on level, and most of the time they just died on you. I think they should put in a merc outpost somewhere on the map, (its like the good old Diablo 1/2 days

) so that people can pay gold for high level merc to help them out.

I also agree that the guild forming system should be moved to post searing, simply because i see too many low level people in pre-searing with a guild (talking about level 4 or 5 people), don't know if they create one or join a high ranking guild to help them out.

The rest of your purpose idea is good, i know want a better pricing for runes, dyes, and materials, since some of these itesm cost a 2 or 10 pla to buy. Also a save system for mission is needed since i have died twice during mission when i almost reach the end of it and its frustrating to died twice when i'm nearly done with the mission.

Hanok Odbrook · Jul 04, 2005, 05:45 PM // 17:45

Hi Sir Skul! I don't mean taking the trade system away altogether, just eliminating the ability to trade gold/platinum between players unless they are of the same guild. Essentially, you can still trade with anyone you like, but unless you are in the same guild as they are, you can't give them any money, and vice versa. You would only be able to trade game items with other players outside of your guild. Trading between same-guild members would be unchanged and unaffected.

Hope that clears it up!

Hanok Odbrook
Real Millennium Group Guild
http://www.realmillenniumgroup.com/guild.html
Truth * Knowledge * Peace

Hanok Odbrook · Jul 21, 2005, 11:13 PM // 23:13

For the sake of not adding to the sheer bulk of the original text, another idea I have seen suggested, and actually thought about myself, but forgot to add to the original post was the idea of having character level requirements to use higher quality armor and weapons, or to advance through certain areas of the world.

This would prevent runners from collecting the best arms and armor in order to farm faction or otherwise cause grief in arenas, and cut back on the inflated trade prices early in the game. The idea here is to re-balance the playing field in the early going of Post-Searing to allow those of use who want to play the game as properly intended to do so, without the GW type of ganking that has currently resulted. Naturally, there will be those who complain about the unfairness of those who already have the armor, but this will balance out over time, as those players will eventually level up and be forced to contend in the latter areas of the game.

Hanok Odbrook
Real Millennium Group Guild
http://www.realmillenniumgroup.com/guild.html
Truth * Knowledge * Peace

As yet another idea that I think might make GW better: I would like to see a couple of dedicated skill slots available for things like the Rez Signet, elite skills, and Charm Animal. This comes as a result of the myriad of times I forgot to switch out a skill with Rez before teaming up for a mission or lower level PvP action. I would like to keep the eight slots as they are now, but add a few that are dedicated to skills that may only be used part-time such as Rez, which needs only to be equipped when you are teamed up. That way these skills can be permanently equipped without having to give up one of the precious eight spots we currently have.

Since only one elite skill can be equipped, I would like to see a dedicated spot for one of these, so that a player need not loose another skill spot for their one high-cost elite skill. Having a dedicated slot for Charm Animal would also be nice for the same reason, since this skill can only be used to keep your pet around, it has no other benefit other than the initial taming. Allowing a Ranger to fill up a skill slot with a better attack or prep skill would help elevate player opinion of their usefulness.

So, we would be able to keep our current 8 slots, but have the addition of three dedicated slots for these other skills, without throwing the initial skill balance out of whack.